Internet

The internet is fundamentally broken. The question now is: what can we do? The answer is messy, expensive, and occasionally involves telling very powerful people that their business model is morally questionable. Accepting the obvious First, acknowledge the unpleasant truth: there is no quick fix. Security is not a feature to be bolted on after launch; it is a mindset, a discipline, and a budget item that competes poorly with shiny new apps and quarterly profits. Anyone promising a “secure internet in six months” is either deluded, lying, or hoping to sell you a consultancy package. Acceptance, at least, costs nothing. ...

Once upon a time, the internet was described as an “information superhighway”. In truth, it more closely resembles the back alley behind a funfair: noisy, sticky underfoot, and populated by people selling things you probably do not want but will end up buying anyway. It is not defendable in any serious sense, and the extraordinary thing is that everyone knows this but insists on behaving as if surprise breaches and collapses are acts of God rather than consequences of design. ...

David Clark remembers the moment the Internet’s Pandora’s box creaked open and said, “Hello, world.” It was 2 November 1988, and the Morris Worm was slithering its way through cyberspace like a python on speed. Designed with the innocence of a curious grad student and the destruction of a cyber sledgehammer, it crashed some 6,000 machines, roughly one-tenth of the Internet at the time. Not bad for an opening act. ...